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Breaking News: Having Sex With Patients Not A Job Duty of Therapists

(Once again, thanks to How Appealing)

File this one under the heading of "No Sh#%, Sherlock."

So a therapist in Kentucky started sleeping with one of his patients. His patient, shocker, got more depressed and sued the doctor for seducing her. The doctor wants to use his liability insurance to settle the claim, but the insurance company argued that sleeping with patients is not within the scope of employment for a therapist. Thus his actions were not covered by his policy.

As a result, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals had to weigh in:

In the instant case, the district court properly concluded that a therapist?s sexual affair with his patient is outside the scope of his employment as a matter of law. While the Kentucky courts have not explicitly addressed this issue, the Kentucky Supreme Court?s decision in Osborne strongly suggests that it would find such sexual activities not to be within a therapist?s scope of employment. Indeed, it is hard to imagine any type of counseling position where having a sexual affair with a patient would be within the scope of employment. We have been unable to find any Kentucky case which has held that engaging in sexual activities with a client is within the person?s scope of employment for purposes of insurance coverage.

Unless you're a hooker! I wonder how many legal prostitutes in Nevada have liability insurance? Sounds like some legal research might be required...

Seriously though, I'm not sure why this case ended up in the 6th Circuit after winding its way through the Kentucky courts. This seems like a pretty clear-cut issue. Blue staters and red staters might not agree on much. But certainly we can all rally behind the principle that it is not a therapist job to screw his patients.

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on January 17, 2008 (boomark / email).